CH 6 : BLOOD MAGIC

She sat silently, pouring a cup of coffee for herself with trembling hands. Paler than usual, she was lost in her own world. Her grip tightened on the cup as she sneaked a glance at Snape.

He had known.

'Blood magic is the foulest of all Dark Arts. It requires the caster to make a sacrifice; the greater the reward, heavier the price to pay. Blood essentially means life and energy, implying that the sacrifice needs to be some form of life too. The consequences on the caster will differ if sacrifice is willing or if it's not willing. Either way, the caster always needs to pay in his/her own blood also.

Be warned: if the sacrifice is unwilling, the caster is generally known to die earlier for various reasons. One of the most common reasons especially in cases of human sacrifices is that their information latches on to the caster. (There are various types of information - memory, genetic information, elemental information, karmic information, energy information, etc.)'

He had known.

He knew that by letting her make the runes with her blood and letting her cast the magic, she was getting assigned the 'caster's role', thereby making himself 'the sacrifice'. Was it the rune or the curse that had killed him, she wondered.

It was a piece that clicked in the jigsaw puzzle. The reason for her blackout and perfect turnout of Wolfsbane potion, her reaction to Snape, how she could imitate his lectures word to word. His information was working for her signifying that he had been a willing sacrifice.

She wished she had been the sacrifice, viciously. But observing the spite bubbling within her, she confronted the fact that she felt incapable by herself. All her fear and anger were emerging out of her own insecurities.

She wondered darkly if she could put her own 'information and memory' on the backburner and pull out Snape's-

"-Mione! Hermione!" Slughorn's face came into my view. "You okay there?"

"Ah- yes! I'm good, good," grimacing.

As he nodded concernedly and went back to his breakfast, I came back to my senses. What on earth? I don't want Snape to take over my body, why would I even consider that. He was dead. Dead. This is my body, I'm the one that's alive.

Rattled and deeply troubled, the cloud stayed above my head even after I had excused myself and was back in the lab brewing the potions.

My attention was suddenly drawn towards the Gryffindor Table, the Marauders were doing their best to stopper the vial in their hands to no avail. The liquid inside was turning into an endless stream of cream coating their hands and table.

A handy little potion she had learnt in the future, she smirked. Their hands were now violently tremor-ing as if getting seizures, while not harmful in any way, they can't use their wands in any way.

Sirius tried to stop it by sitting on top of his hands, only to fall back as his entire body shook, jiggling as if doing a bad shimmy. James was still trying to grasp at the stopper and Pettigrew had somehow managed to get it onto his face as well, so he was shaking and spilling food and drinks onto others.

She chuckled. Serves them right.

Her glance shifted towards Snape and just like that, her vision blurred as a deep urge, an unbearable itch to curse him arose.

Her wand hand trembled trying to grasp at her wand.

She stood up abruptly and almost fell but somehow managed to hurriedly leave the Great Hall. The farther she got, the clearer her head got.

It was happening.

'Once the caster becomes aware of the sacrifice's information and knowingly or unknowingly uses it; with time, the distinction may start to blur and the sacrifice, if more powerful than the caster, may start to dominate. In such a case, it may either lead on to a continuous power struggle of two entities within the caster's body, ending with one of their demise or the caster may even lose their sanity over time.'

She was losing her sanity. Of course the text did not cover what would be the consequences or effects in case the blood magic had been used to time travel.

Older Snape's information was obviously reacting to the younger Snape's presence but why with hostility? Why would seek to destroy it's ownself in any form?

Either way, she might go insane or kill Snape.

A/N: Hello, dearest readers. I apologise for the short chapters. Don't really know if I'm being able to keep it interesting till now or not. Please leave me some reviews & let me know how it's been for you so far!